“I must see him. I haven’t seen him
since last summer—­nearly a whole year!
And he hasn’t written to me, and I haven’t
dared to write to him, for fear of the letter going
wrong. So, you see, I must go. Today’s
my only chance. Aunt Caroline has gone away.
Father will be busy in the garden, and won’t
notice whether I’m here or not. And, besides,
tomorrow it will be too late, because Percy will be
here. He was more furious about the thing than
anyone.”

“I want you to pick me up in the car about half
a mile down the road. You can drop me somewhere
in Piccadilly. That will be near enough to where
I want to go. But the most important thing is
about Percy. You must persuade him to stay and
dine in town and come back here after dinner.
Then I shall be able to get back by an afternoon train,
and no one will know I’ve been gone.”

“That’s simple enough, what? Consider
it done. When do you want to start?”

“At once.”

“I’ll toddle round to the garage and fetch
the car.” Reggie chuckled amusedly.
“Rum thing! The mater’s just been
telling me I ought to take you for a drive.”

“You are a darling, Reggie, really!”

Reggie gave her back another paternal pat.

“I know what it means to be in love, dear old
soul. I say, Maud, old thing, do you find love
puts you off your stroke? What I mean is, does
it make you slice your approach-shots?”

Maud laughed.

“No. It hasn’t had any effect on
my game so far. I went round in eighty-six the
other day.”

Reggie sighed enviously.

“Women are wonderful!” he said. “Well,
I’ll be legging it and fetching the car.
When you’re ready, stroll along down the road
and wait for me.”

* * *

When he had gone Maud pulled a small newspaper clipping
from her pocket. She had extracted it from yesterday’s
copy of the Morning Post’s society column.
It contained only a few words:

“Mr. Wilbur Raymond
has returned to his residence at
No. 11a Belgrave Square from
a prolonged voyage in his
yacht, the Siren.”

Maud did not know Mr. Wilbur Raymond, and yet that
paragraph had sent the blood tingling through every
vein in her body. For as she had indicated to
Reggie, when the Wilbur Raymonds of this world return
to their town residences, they bring with them their
nephew and secretary, Geoffrey Raymond. And Geoffrey
Raymond was the man Maud had loved ever since the
day when she had met him in Wales.